TY - JOUR T1 - Arginine methylation helps SepIVA balance regulation of septation and elongation in <em>Mycobacterium smegmatis</em> JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2021.10.06.463415 SP - 2021.10.06.463415 AU - Angela H Freeman AU - Karen Tembiwa AU - James R Brenner AU - Michael R Chase AU - Sarah M Fortune AU - Yasu S Morita AU - Cara C Boutte Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/10/19/2021.10.06.463415.abstract N2 - Growth of mycobacterial cells requires successful coordination between elongation and division of the cell wall. However, it is not clear which factors directly mediate this coordination. Here, we studied the function and post-translational modification of an essential division factor, SepIVA, in Mycobacterium smegmatis. We find that SepIVA is arginine methylated, and that these modifications alter both division and polar elongation of Msmeg. Furthermore, SepIVA impacts the localization of MurG. Polar localization of MurG correlates with polar elongation in arginine methylation mutants of sepIVA. These results establish SepIVA as a regulator of both elongation and division, and characterize a physiological role for protein arginine methylation for the first time in bacteria.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -